The present invention relates to an interactive vehicle control system that may determine and detect, without failure, various vehicle conditions including current vehicle speed, shift position, steering angle, fuel remainder, coolant temperature and other conditions of devices and instruments equipped in a vehicle, and environmental conditions such as current road conditions encountered in driving, ambient air temperature, distance to neighboring vehicles in front or rear, etc. The present invention may be incorporated into an agent system in which such vehicle conditions are determined in cooperation with a personified agent or imaginary living body depicted on a display in the vehicle, whose activity is controlled to achieve good communication with a driver or passenger in the vehicle.
Some attempts have been made to determine vehicle conditions in response to detection signals from sensors mounted in or to the vehicle. One example is described in Japanese patent publication No.9-159473 which relates to a navigation system in which vehicle orientation and road inclination data are compared with each other to automatically identify the road currently driven. Japanese patent publication No.9-14957 discloses a system with a sensor which detects the road condition, more specifically detects if the road is in a wet, snow covered or icy condition.
Determination of the vehicle conditions is a matter of great importance to accurate navigation to a designated goal, suitable control of vehicle devices and instruments and safe driving.
The prior art systems depend on detection by sensors. However, with respect to some vehicle conditions, the sensors merely indicate probability but can not give definite and reliable indications. For example, even if a thermometer detects a road surface temperature below the freezing point, it is not always true that the road is ice bound. A combination of plural sensor detection could somewhat improve reliability but would greatly increase the manufacturing costs and complexity of the overall system.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a novel system with simple construction, capable of determining the vehicle conditions with much improved reliability and accuracy.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system for achieving vehicle control in response to results of the reliable and accurate determination of the vehicle conditions.
The inventors have already filed a U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/119,238 on Jul. 21, 1998 which relates to an agent system used in a vehicle, typically in combination with a navigation system. In this agent system, a personified agent appears on a display in the vehicle in response to detection of a specific vehicle condition. The personified agent receives information from and transmits information to a driver or passenger, the result of which communication is used to automatically control the vehicle in conformity with the current vehicle conditions. In such an agent system, it is also necessary to recognize the vehicle conditions with improved reliability and accuracy for better communication between the agent and the driver. Accordingly, it is still another object of the present invention to provide an improved agent system capable of achieving better communication between the agent and the driver for better vehicle control in conformity with the conditions in and around the vehicle.
To achieve the above objects, in accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interactive vehicle control system comprising a sensor mounted on a vehicle to detect whether or not a specific physical quantity that rotates to the vehicle or driving of the vehicle. The sensor outputs a detection signal received by a discriminating means which determines a degree of reliability of existence of at least one specific condition to be considered in vehicle control. Output means outputs a question for confirmation of the specific condition when the degree of reliability determined by the discriminating means lies within a predetermined range. Input means inputs a user""s answer to the outputted question and final decision making means receives the users answer to determine whether or not the vehicle control is to be executed. Execution means executes vehicle control in accordance with the result of determination by the final decision making means.
In this system, the specific condition may comprise one or more selected from the group consisting of current vehicle position, current vehicle speed, current shift position of an automatic transmission, current operative condition of any device mounted on the vehicle, engine oil temperature and pressure, passenger compartment temperature, outside temperature, road conditions and weather conditions.
The output means typically comprises a speaker through which the question is outputted as a machine voice. The input means typically comprises a microphone through which the users answer is inputted as the users own voice. The final decision making means may include a voice analyzer that analyzes the users voice answer to determine if the answer is affirmative or negative.
In a preferred embodiment this system further comprises a display on which a personified agent appears for communication with the user in the vehicle, and agent control means for controlling activities of the agent. The question from the output means is a type of the agents activities and is controlled by the agent control means.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided an interactive automatic transmission control system comprising sensor means mounted on a vehicle to infer that the vehicle is now running on an uphill or a downhill of inclination greater than a predetermined angle; output means that outputs a question for confirmation of the inference by the sensor means; input means that inputs a users answer to the output question; and an automatic transmission control means that outputs a shift-down command to the automatic transmission when it is confirmed by the users answer that the vehicle is actually running uphill or downhill.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the sensor means comprises a slope sensor for detecting orientation of the vehicle in the direction of advancement thereof. The sensor means may comprise a combination of an accelerator sensor for detecting a degree of opening of an accelerator and a vehicle speed sensor for detecting a current vehicle speed, result of detection of these sensors being indicative of a vehicle speed variation with respect to the degree of accelerator opening at a current shift position.
In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, there is provided an interactive vehicle automatic transmission control system comprising sensor means mounted on a vehicle to infer that a vehicle is now running on a slippery road; output means that outputs a question for confirmation of the inference by the sensor means; input means that inputs a users answer to the output question; and an automatic transmission control means that outputs a shift-down command to an automatic transmission when it is confirmed by the users answer that the vehicle is actually running on a slippery road.
In a particular embodiment of this system, the sensor means comprises a wheel speed sensor for detecting respective speeds of driven wheels and non-driven wheels, capable of indicating wheel slippage between the driven and non-driven wheels, and/or a thermosensor for detecting ambient temperature.
In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, there is provided an interactive navigation system comprising a current position sensor for detecting current position of a vehicle; route-finding means for determining a drive route from the current position detected by the current position sensor to a predetermined goal location; inference means that receives, during driving, a detection signal from the current position sensor to infer a probability that the vehicle has diverted from the drive route determined by the mute-finding means; a speaker that outputs a machine voice question by which the inferred probability of diversion can be confirmed; a microphone that inputs a users voice answer to the question; final decision making means that receives the user""s voice answer to determine whether or not the current vehicle position is actually offset from the drive route; and position correct means that corrects the vehicle position on a map in accordance with the result of determination by the final decision making means.
In a particular application of this system, route-finding means determines another drive route from the corrected vehicle position, determined by the position correct means, to the goal location when the final decision making means confirms diversion of the vehicle from the previous drive route.
In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, there is provided an interactive navigation system comprising a current position sensor for detecting current position of a vehicle; route-finding means for determining a drive mute from the current position detected by the current position sensor to a predetermined goal location; inference means that infers a probability of a traffic jam on the current drive route which has been determined by the route-finding means and along which the vehicle is currently driven; a speaker that outputs a machine voice question by which the inferred traffic jam probability can be confirmed; a microphone that inputs a users voice answer to the question; and final decision making means that receives the users voice answer to determine whether or not there is actually a traffic jam on the currently driven route. The route-finding means determines another drive route to the goal location which detours the point of the traffic jam, when the final decision making means confirms the traffic jam on the currently driven route.